Seven of the leading supermarkets have cleared their shelves of frozen beefburgers after a supplier sold Tesco products which were 29 per cent horse meat.

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The scale of horse meat contamination emerged on Tuesday, when the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said it had tested 27 beefburger products. More than a third had tested positive for horse DNA, including one Tesco Value beefburger in which 29 per cent of the “beef” content was in fact horse meat. Tesco blamed suppliers, saying there had either been “gross negligence” or “illegality”.

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Suppliers in Holland and Spain are being investigated for supplying the contaminated meat.

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Tim Lang, a professor of food policy at City University, London, said: “It could have been going on for years but we wouldn’t know about it because we have never conducted tests.

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Aldi, Lidl and Iceland also withdrew frozen beefburgers from their shelves after they were found to be contaminated with horse meat.

They were joined by Sainsbury’s, Asda and the Co-op. While they were not found to be selling contaminated food they said they were withdrawing the frozen products from sale as a “precautionary measure”.

The supermarkets were supplied by three meat processing companies, two of which were owned by the ABP Food Group, based in Ireland.

ABP said it was investigating two of its suppliers, believed to be based in the Netherlands and Spain, for selling it contaminated “beef filler”.